Occupational health and safety news and guidance

Waste management provider Veolia Environmental Services has been
fined after an agency worker was seriously burned by hot ash at an
incineration depot in Deptford.

The employee sustained 17 per cent
burns to his body whilst cleaning ash from a filtration hopper at a
Veolia plant on Landman Way on29 December 2009.

The ash fell onto him when he entered the hopper and started prodding
it with a rod in order to clear a blockage. He was hospitalised for
almost a month as a result of the burns he sustained.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the
incident found Veolia did not follow its own policies and procedures for
the management of dangerous tasks of this nature. This put a vulnerable
worker at risk by failing to provide him with adequate information or
supervision.

City of London Magistrates' Court heard on 27 April that the
employee, from Eastern Europe, spoke little English and had not been
properly briefed in the working practices at the incineration plant.

Veolia ES SELCHP Ltd, of Pentonville Road, London, N1, pleaded guilty
to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
1974 for supervisory failings that led to dangerous working practices.
The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £12,243.